Magic, Midsummer, & Macbeth

The witches of Macbeth beguile not only the title character but Shakespeare’s original and modern audiences.  They are arguably one of the most celebrated aspects of this tragedy.  Their often rhyming lines, sing-song phrases, and fantastical descriptions of their magic make them memorable and mystifying.  There is something about Hecate and her followers that transform this play into something more than a drama about power, kingship, and control.  Shakespeare’s inclusion of supernatural forces gives this story a larger scale and makes it appear grander because of the mysterious witches that know so much.  As one reads their famous “Double, double, toil and trouble,/ Fire burn, and cauldron bubble” speech, it is impossible not to get into a musical pattern because of Shakespeare’s skill in writing the contents of the cauldron (4.1.10-11).  While reading this act, I could not help but notice similarities between Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  This is an interesting pairing, as one is definitely a tragedy and the other a comedy, but both maintain an element of whimsy and supernatural, although in completely separate ways.  A Midsummer was first performed around the year 1595 and Macbeth was originally performed in 1606.  Perhaps Shakespeare is acknowledging his fairy comedy again, eleven years later, by inserting elements found in A Midsummer into the witches scene of Macbeth.  Hecate states in 4.1 something that easily could be read in A Midsummer: “And now about the cauldron sing/ Like elves and fairies in a ring,/ Enchanting all that you put in” (lines 41-43). Shakespeare is conceivably adopting elements of his original fanciful play into this tragic drama because it did so well with the audience in 1595.  There are obviously no cauldrons present in A Midsummer, but fairies do play a significant role in the comedy and it would be easy to imagine Titania stating Hecate’s line, although in a somewhat different manner.  A more apparent relation between these two plays is the mention of spirits named “Puckey,” and “Robin,”: “Firedrake, Puckey, make it lucky;/ Liard, Robin, you must bob in” (4.1.47-48).  Anyone who has read A Midsummer Night’s Dream knows of the famous Robin Goodfellow, also known as Puck or a puck, the magical imp henchman to Oberon.  I do not know the history of Elizabethan folklore, but I like to think Shakespeare is creating unity between the two dramas.  Using the name of a key character of his earlier play and attaching it to a spirit in Macbeth shows genius. Interestingly, a fairy does call Puck in A Midsummer, a “hobgoblin” which may relate to the goblin-like witches of Macbeth (2.1.40). 

            What caused me to draw this parallel between these plays was the Spirit’s and Hecate’s song in 3.5 that is remarkably similar to a fairy’s in A Midsummer.  They sing “Over woods, high rocks and mountains,/ Over seas and misty fountains,/ Over steeples, towers and turrets,/ We fly by night ‘mongst troops of spirits” (3.5.62-65).  This is amazingly akin to Fairy’s 2.1 speech when Robin asks how the fairy is and the reply is: “Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, / Over park, over pale,/ Thorough flood, thorough fire:/ I do wander everywhere (1.2.2-6).  The repetition of the word “over” and the spirits and fairy both singing of flying and wandering high above all the earth is so alike.  Shakespeare had to have been aware of the similarity and maybe recycled the same notion because it gives the witches a sense of other worldliness that the fairy encapsulates in A Midsummer.  Both sections are also very catchy and would be great for an actor to recite with passion in front of an audience. 

            Finally, the speeches made by the witches and Titania regarding the gathering of materials is alike, yet different and appropriate for their genres.  In A Midsummer, the fairy queen tells her fairy followers to “feed [Bottom] with apricots and dewberries,/ With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;/ the honeybags steal from the humble-bees/… And pluck the wings from painted butterflies/ To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes” (3.1.148-150, 154-155).  This segment has a pastoral, light, and magical quality to it.  In Macbeth, however, the thrilling descriptions get darker: “Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,/ Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf/ Of the ravined salt-sea shark,/ Root of hemlock digged i’th’ dark,/ Liver of blaspheming Jew…” (4.1.22-26).   These ingredients are sinister and cast an entirely different mood over the scene as compared to Titania’s scene.  The gloom created by the witches plays well with Macbeth’s twisted, evil character.  The characters in A Midsummer are more concerned with love and therefore have lighter objects in their list.  It would be interesting to research and compare the supernatural characters of Macbeth to that of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Shakespeare’s frequent use of the supernatural tells what the Elizabethan theatre audience found enticing and what he thought made for great drama, whether comedy or tragedy.

Offended by the apology?

            Robin’s epilogue at the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is intriguing. Shakespeare seems to have ‘jumped the shark’ in suggesting that all was a dream at the end of the play. Why would Shakespeare end the play by saying it was all a dream and then apologize if it offended? It may have been because of the strong female characters that behave uncharacteristically for the time.  The apology, “Gentles, do not reprehend. If you pardon, we will mend” (5.2.7-8) could be intended for the men in the audience who will have to deal with the aftermath of women who are inspired by Hermia, Helena and Titania.

            A female character publically opposing her father must have been controversial. Women of the time would have been awestruck by Hermia’s defiant behavior towards her father. They might have been inspired by Hermia’s stance on not marrying someone she doesn’t love. Hermia statement, “Ere I will yield my virgin patent up Unto his lordship whose unwished yoke. My soul consents not to give sovereignty” (1.1. 80-83) could have planted seeds of rebellion in young girls.  Hermia does not waiver in her defiance and is prepared to live a life of chastity if she cannot have the one she loves. Could Shakespeare have been accountable for young women of the era standing up to their fathers and taking control of their own destinies?

            Helena’s character could have also gotten Shakespeare into trouble. While I love Helena she is the epitome of obsessed even in today’s world.  She doesn’t pursue Demetrius shamelessly, “Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex. We cannot fight for love as men do;” (2.1.240-241) she admits she is behaving unabashedly yet she does not yield in the face of rejection. If Helena’s behavior is a part of the offense and included in the apology how does it reconcile with the fact that she gets Demetrius in the end? If I were an impressionable young girl in the audience I might think that if I super stalked someone I could end up with him.  

            Titania is yet another female character that defies  male authority. Robin tells the fairy that Titania  forcibly “withholds the loved boy” (2.1.26) from Oberon. Like Hermia and Helena, Tiatnia carries out her assertion until she is tricked into giving the boy up.  In class we discussed the interpretation of the relationship between Titania,  her voltress and the mens’ merchant ships.  The notion of  women being more valuable than men because of reproduction seems to be what Shakespeare would have needed to apologize for most of all.  

            I wonder how the dream was received in Shakespeare’s time. I think it was a crafty way for him to get his ideas across and save himself from public scrutiny. Today’s audiences don’t seem to appreciate the ‘dream’ explanation. We want to be told what it means rather than finding the meaning ourselves.